It’s time for girls to glove up.
Quesnel’s 2 Rivers Boxing Club is home to a brand new initiative for females. For a few years, now, the success of Britynn “Hurricane” Carter, Robyn Grant and Melissa “Matador” O’Flynn has been sustained and infectious. Now, the girls’ movement has been formalized.
It’s perhaps rooted in being a mom, perhaps in being a first-aid instructor as a profession, but O’Flynn is now translating her fighting experience into coaching. She has launched the city’s first females-only boxing class, for experts to first-timers.
“I want this opportunity for absolutely anybody who wants to do it,” she said. “And I don’t think that by myself I could raise enough awareness. I could do some, but it has to be a collaboration – like-minded people who are working together to help other people do that, too. So I want a team from northern B.C. that wants to travel with me, and be a group that contributes to others.”
She’s already on a team similar to that, which is where she got the idea. Last spring, at the urging of Carter who had already done it, O’Flynn attended the West Coast Wonder Woman all-female boxing intensive on Vancouver Island. She found a set of coaches and a community of boxers who showed her incredible welcome.
She also got to fight three times in a single weekend, which is two more than most boxers get in a short window. It gave her more than a heavy workout, it pushed her personal boundaries.
“You can ask any boxer. Anytime you go to a competition, it elevates you,” she explained. “I will never regress from where I am from my last fight. I could take a year or two off boxing but I’ll still have that. My cardio might go down, but I will always have my knowledge from my past fights – how to move my head, how to step a little closer, the different angles that worked. That’s why I recommend to fight more than once in a weekend, if possible.”
These revelations also informed her inner coach when she was invited to Mexico by the West Coast Wonder Woman group for the Adelita Championships. Again, Carter recommended it from her own experiences, and O’Flynn knew she would be well supported by the 18 women and one male on the team, plus all the coaches, some of whom had Olympic backgrounds.
As O’Flynn was struggling with the “fight before the fight” – the pre-bout jitters that so many boxers endure – she had a special moment sitting near former Canadian champion Kaitlyn Clark, who was also getting ready for a fight that day. O’Flynn had just passed the 10-fight mark, making her an Open category athlete; Clark had more than 100 in her career.
O’Flynn said she was feeling what she always feels before a fight. “I’m going to get punched in the face, right now; what is wrong with me? What if I look like an idiot out there? What if I forget everything I’ve learned? Your brain plays all these games with you,” she said.
Clark, in her field of vision, seemed so calm.
“She saw me looking at her, and she looked right at me and said ‘it’s the same every time. I’m just as nervous right now as I was the very first time I fought.’ Then all of a sudden you step into the ring and it sheds off of you. Completely gone.”
Along on that same trip to Mexico was a first-time fighter. Jessalyn Johnson had never even set foot in a proper boxing ring. She was a sparring partner, training pal, and good friend of O’Flynn in Prince George, so it was natural for O’Flynn to invite her along for the Mexico opportunity. It was an immediate yes, and now, Johnson has some of those personal expansions as well.
Another aspect of O’Flynn’s growth within the sport is the outreach for sponsors. O’Flynn Roofing, Myatovic Logging and Quietwood Logging all stepped up to cover the travel bills, which taught her some entirely different lessons that carried her into the ring.
“They invested in me, so I don’t want to let them down. They aren’t focused on my wins and losses, it’s just the embarrassment factor, that pressure I put on myself,” O’Flynn said. “But that helped me push myself harder, way out of my comfort zone. I needed discipline, because I told people I was doing something, so I had to do my best.”
She has gotten so much, as an athlete and a person, from the sport of boxing that she now wants to build that out for others. The all-female classes happen every Tuesday. Doors are locked at 6 p.m. and for those inside, the training goes on until 7:30. Cost is $100 per month, with proceeds to build a female competition travel fund.
There is no maximum age restriction, but participants must be 13 or older. Children are steered towards other times of the week when parents can also be in the room at 2 Rivers Boxing Club.
To register, call O’Flynn at 250-983-7691, she’s at @boxingwithred on Instagram, or message her on Facebook.